Pink Floyd Playwright Worried More About Gilmour Than Waters

11/27/2013.

(Classic Rock) Playwright Sir Tom Stoppard was more worried about upsetting David Gilmour than Roger Waters when he was commissioned to write Darkside, the radio script based on Pink Floyd's The Dark Side Of The Moon.

It was created for the BBC to mark the album's 40th anniversary earlier this year, broadcast in August, and has now received its CD release. Asked if he felt trepidation over removing most of Waters' lyrics, Stoppard tells the New York Times: "I had less trepidation about that than I did in writing over the music.

"I know David Gilmour somewhat better than I know the other members of the band, and I was feeling diffident about the possibility that David would mind if the music was pushed into the background, half-heard, in order for my words to take the foreground.

"So I called him up, and he was completely okay about that. He said, 'Go ahead, fine.' Let's face it: The Dark Side of the Moon is not vulnerable to being obscured by a radio play." more on this story